Hi all
A question to the wise owls on the Naim forum.
Recently came back to vinyl - running my old and refreshed Linn Axis (oil, belt, new Goldring 1042) for a while before jumping to its big brother. I have a recently serviced NAC72 which has a phono stage. The rest of the system is Olive HiCap (serviced), 250-2, ATC19s.
So the question. Ahead of a turntable upgrade would it be worth investing in a better phono stage (which I could then use/need with MM/MC on a Sondek)? The underlying questions are - is the phono stage on the NAC72 any good and would I notice a sound improvement?
Forgive any naivety - my first posting and a recent return to vinyl obsession…
Well, the answer can be “Yes” and “Yes”. It is good, but it can be bettered.
That said, I personally wouldn’t go beyond it with an Axis. It’ll see you all the way to top LP12 spec with no difficulty in highlighting other more meaningful upgrades.
If you must run MC, just look for the appropriate phono cards and that’s it.
thankyou @ricsimas that sounds wise. Probably putting the money to the TT fund makes more obvious sense. Let’s see what others say. I’m just trying to spread the investment really and see if a phono stage now would increase quality in the meantime as the TT upgrade will happen within the year and it may necessitate a phono stage replacement if I go MC. But as you hint, that’s another rabbit hole for another day!